Summary of Events:
When we left our adventurers last, Rota weaved through the coral outcropping and into the next chamber to verify what Ren had told them he’d seen. However, he does not see a room full of excrement as Ren had foretold. Instead, he sees two hammer-head skeleton sharks, the beast that had been taunting them throughout their underwater excursion, and two human figures around a massive pile of gold.
Rota approaches the enemies and says, “You have nowhere else to run. It is time to pay the piper.”
Veins of glowing-red energy ripple out from Rota’s eyes and start to travel down his arm. His arm turns from its usual bronze tint to a silvery pulsating mercury color as he invokes Rage. The creature floats forward and reaches out to Rota with its mind.
“Rota…I can give you the power to balance the cosmic scales. You will hold the scales of the universe in your hands. You just need to give in” the beast says.
“You are the one who has been weighing down the scales, my quarry. Do you think I don’t already control the power to balance the scales? I wield it RIGHT HERE,” Rota says, brandishing his glaive.
“If that is what you wish, then so be it,” the creature says as the sharks begin to dash toward Rota in a coordinated assault.
Rota prepares himself, calculates the optimal timing for his parry, and launches his counter-assault. The raging centurion vanishes, teleporting around the chamber, dodging the approaching sharks, and slashing into each enemy with his glaive.
Suddenly the creature’s tentacles all reach out in Rota’s direction as if it’s trying to grab him. Rota’s central processing unit experiences a momentary spike in capacity consumption and his main process subroutines start to lag heavily. He is ultimately able to push through it and resist this odd assault from the creature.
The sharks make their approach, attacking Rota in unison. One of the sharks clamps down on Rota’s leg and shakes it furiously while the other bites the centurion’s arm. Chonka makes a Goading Attack and throws a javelin at one of the sharks while yelling, “Rota’s always got a bone to pick with someone!” Iolair mutters under his breath, “time to pay the toll” and casts Toll the Dead on both of the skeleton sharks.
The creature’s tentacles reach out for Iolair as they did to Rota and the sorcerer feels a flash of pain as the beast tries to probe his mind. Iolair focuses his will and resists the mental assault from the monster.
Ren hesitates at the sight of his parents, Anne and Henry Prodfoot. He is momentarily perplexed by the sight before him. They appear to be alive, yet their complexions are pale. They are not chained as prisoners, but they do not move freely. Furious at the thought of his parents being held prisoner, Ren unleashes his anger in a slashing surprise attack. Suddenly, Ren hears the voice of the creature in his mind.
“Renvoxlous, I can give you a home. I can end your need to run. I can end your need to look over your shoulder.”
Suddenly, Ren is in Misthelm, eating and drinking around a fire with Tommy, Chonka, Iolair, and Rota. He looks around and notices that Rota does not have his glaive. That Chonka does not have her armor on. When he looks down, he realizes that he only has one dagger on his person. He’s safe. He’s home. Ren gives in to this illusion and drinks heartily from the sweet wine-filled goblet in his other dagger hand.
Back in the underwater cavern, Ren appears to be totally normal. Rota says to the beast, “I am sick of dealing with your pets” and launches a teleporting multi-attack focused on the creature. It attacks back in retaliation, wrapping one of Rota’s legs in its tentacles and crushing it. Black tar-like ooze seems to seep into the centurion’s mechanical fluid system. Another tentacle reaches out for Rota’s arm but he blocks it and pushes it away.
One of the sharks dashes Chonka, its mouthful of razor-sharp teeth opened wide. The shark bites into her left arm and yanks on it hungrily. Chonka produces her crab hammer and yells “Bon Apetite!” in a Commanding Strike as she brings the crustation club down on the bone-shark’s mouth, shattering the shark into pieces. Iolair channels his arcane mastery and speaks the Healing Word; “Lar.”
Suddenly, Ren swims over to Iolair and jabs a dagger into the side of his neck. As Ren approaches, Iolair notices that Ren’s eyes are glazed over like two grey-blue pools of murky water.
Rota addresses the beast again and says, “You DARE manipulate the minds of my friends?” and slashes the creature with his Planar Warrior Strike.
The creature swims towards Chonka, taking another glaive attack from Rota as it swims away, and tries to pummel her with its slimy tentacles. She blocks the first two but gets slammed by the third. Chonka returns the attack with her Krusty Krab-hammer. In a fit of rage and feat of strength, Chonka grabs the bone-shark by its tail and swings it like a giant club into the tentacle creature. She makes three attacks, beating the creature down with its own minion.
Iolair, having just gotten stabbed by his friend, looks into Ren’s eyes and says, “Ren, something is wrong. But I know that meditation is often a great way to reset the mind. Maybe you just need to take some time OUT.” as he casts Banishment. Ren is suddenly blinked from this plane of existence and out of sight of his friends.
In Ren’s mind, he is sitting at a table with Iolair playing a game of five-finger-filet. As Ren’s dagger dances within the sections of wood between Iolair’s fingers, he notices that he hears Iolair speaking to him, but his lips are not moving. Iolair’s voice grows louder and louder.
“Ren, something…wrong…meditation….reset the mind…you just need to TAKE SOME TIME OUT.”
Suddenly he is yanked from this reality and reappears in a plane he does not recognize. The first thing to fill his mind are two words;
“Ah fuck.”
Session End.
Golden Goof: Chonka Super Mario 64’ing a shark into the fish-squid creature.
Golden Chirp: I drink up! Mission accomplished. I put my dick away. You said I had my knife out right?
Copy Link